Twitter: a social media platform used regularly by 302 million people, including me. I use Twitter extensively as a means by which to connect with readers and fellow romantics – I chat, I publish news relating to my books, and I share quotations about life and love.

As yet, however, I have not embraced Twitter as a platform via which to publish my own fictional writing. My novels are upwards of 100,000 words in length. I write sweeping, epic stories full of depth and detail. I do not think I could tell a story in 140 characters or less. But I have been fascinated to see others doing so!

It was Ernest Hemingway, famously, who penned the perfect shorter-than-short story: ‘For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn. ’In his day, there was little interest in such condensed works. But since the advent – and explosive growth – of micro-blogging, especially on Twitter, a passion for short fiction has evolved.

Robert Swartwood, editor of the anthology Hint Fiction, comprising stories of 25 words or fewer, told The Huffington Post, ‘A story should do four basic things: obviously it should tell a story; it should be entertaining; it should be thought-provoking; and, if done well enough, it should invoke an emotional response. And if a writer can do that with a story that’s 140 characters or less, even better!’

With those criteria in mind, in May 2015 the world has been watching the events of #TwitterFiction Festival unfold via @TWfictionfest. Authors as diverse as Margaret Atwood, Gayle Foreman, Lemony Snicket, Celeste Ng and Jackie Collins signed up to participate.

#TwitterFiction has enabled a range of sharing and producing fiction:

• Invite readers to tweet a prompt, and write from there.
• Share fiction broken into bite-sized chunks.
• Tell stories in a single tweet.
• Preview a current work, or write anew.
• Write ‘live’ – fluid and improvised.
• Share pictures to tell, or accompany, a tale.
• Create accounts in characters’ names and tweet as them.
• Co-write by collaborating back and forth.

What comes through is the originality and innovative nature of the work, and the core themes of mastery and valour. Take the author Lauren Beukes, for example, who invited people to offer genre mashups as prompts, such as ‘Cold War fairy tale’ and ‘Muppet prison drama’, and then wrote Twitter-length stories live in response. That is art stripped bare – and all the more fun, inspiring and beautiful for it.

Did you follow the #TwitterFiction Festival? Did a particular author hold your attention? Are you inspired to read (or write) ‘hint fiction’? I would love to hear your thoughts.